Weight supporting fabric



N 1953 J. E. LILIENFELD 8 2,659,957

WEIGHT SUPPORTING FABRIC Filed Sept. 12, 1949 4 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. JULIUS E. Ll LIENFELD ATT EA/YEY J. E. LILIENFELD 2,659,957 WEIGHT SUPPORTING FABRIC Nov. 24, 1953 Filed Sept. 12, 1949 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Nov. 24, 1953 J, E. LILIENFELD 2,659,957

WEIGHT SUPPORTING FABRIC Filed Sept. 12, 1949 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 IN VEN TOR.

A TTOPNEY JU LIUS E. LILIENFELD I Nov. 24, 1953 J. E. LILIENFELD 2,659,957

WEIGHT SUPPORTING FABRIC Filed Sept. 12, 1949 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR JULIUS E. LILIENFELD ATTO R N EY Patented Nov. 24, 1953 V UNITED- STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,659,957 W V WEIGHT SUPPORTING FABRIo Julius E.- Lilienfeld, St. Thomas, v. 1. Application September 12, 1949, Serial No; 115,150

resilient support of masses, however distributed;

and in the'case of deformable bodies to design said-fabric so as to makeit applicable-for formgiving purposes to all kinds-of shapes nomatte'r how complicated or simple, e.- g.-, in garments of the typekno'wn as foundation-garments, brassiere cups, etc.

It is also an object of-the invention to provide a construction which would'allow for, a"technologically" efficient method" of production; especially the operationof introducing said elastic filament into said base fabric,

ln myU. S. Patentapplication; Serial No. 65,484, filed December 15, 1948, itis stated 'that a bas e fabric of inextensible' thread is com bined with the resiliently acting, and incidentally form-giving of weight-supporting elastic filament to distort for said'uses.

,A specific base fabric; adapted thus to distort, is 'shown in my'saidcopending -U. S; application as disk-shaped andof the pursenet type. Such nets, however, are limited in their application to shapes of thehemispherical character; as in brassires. Anotherlimi-tation is that they are hand made and there is no'machinery known either to produce them or to. provide them with the corresponding: pattern of elastic: filament, which in this case iscircular or radial; and may be called of the polar type, inquantities and at low cost.

' The-present invention has for an object to devise a base fabric which would be applicable to all shapes. In order to do so, the novel fabric isrmadeidentical not only with reference to one singular point but 'toany one point in the fabric chosen atrandom; All the delineations of. the pattern'of the non-distorted fabric are so designed as to run from any one given point" of the fabric along a trace consisting ofintersecting lines Whose direction changes at each point of intersection and which are short if compared with the dimensions of the-pieceof fabric considered as applied to a given area. In other words, the said delineations are outlined as a zig-zag trace'; ra'ther'than'. a continuously curved trace.

Another object is to provide said fabric with such asuitable patternof elastic filament as may be economically produced with conventional mechanical equipment, e. g'., Raschel machines.

Eoi' the attainment of the foregoing and such other objects of'the invention as may appearor befpointed out herein; -I have shown preferred drawings embodiments-ofmy invention on the accompanying drawings; wherein:

-Fig. 1 is a plainview of a base fabric of a regular hexagonal meshcombined with elastic strands.

l ig-.%2 is a plan view-of a 'baseffabric of apentagonar mesh -combinedwithelastic strands;

Fig. 3 is a plaaviw showing the applicationfor weight supporting purposes of aretiformba'se fabric of which the meshes are irregular quadrangels interlaced.with formgiving elastic filaments. The elastic filaments can either be rub-f her-like felastorneric tubing). or filament or cable, which may be covered with cotton, nylon etc. yarnin a helical form or braided.

Fig. 3d an enlarged perspective'detailof the above showing one example of combining the elastic strands with the base fabric in the frame work with the fabric.

Fig. 3b is an example ofjatta'ching the fabri'c" to a frame for weight supporting purposes.

Fig. 4 is nfe x 'mpie'ror use for formgiving pur poses. It refers to aj foundationgaimentfand thef figure showsja'front view'ofa female body clad in such garment.

Fig, 7' is anotherexample of use for ror'ifigivmgf purposes and showsfa'side elevational view of a' cone showing a br'assire' cup diagrammatically spread on the cone with elastic filaments interlaced throughout a'hejxagonal fabric. a It will be' noted that the fabrics indicated in all figures are of afdiff'erent character than the usual quadratic mesh 'o'fa conventional net.

This is .so because a fabric made up by repeat ingan equilateral quadrangular mesh which'i's' rhombic; or a 'regular'triangular mesh (isosceles triangles), will not comply with the aforesaid first requirement toflbe identicallyradially defformable at each point of thefabrie. A fabric, however, made of regular polygons of more than four'side's will quite broadly showsu'ch characteristic. 1 The specific description of'th'e figures is given as follows: The simplest example of a pattern, as it can be produced; for'instance, on a Raschel machine, ofrejgular polygons of more than rqur sides, is a fabfiea'sshoiv'nin Fig. .1 madejofja' regular hexago'nalme'sh 'Zlland elastic strands IT. The reason for its simplicity is the fact that, if

one takes two'adjacent sides-"of a regular hexagon and uses eachi'side as 'ajside "of a new'hexagon, the two new" 'he'xagons will have a common side,

- and thenthe pattern may'be continued indefinite;

ly. Qbviously this dueto the fact that *each angle of'a'hexagonisf 360; 3

fabric is, even though it zig-zags sufficiently and uniformly enough to be used in many cases.

The latter is true for a regular heptagon, octagon, etc.; and from the above consideration it;

appears that the regularly hexagonal fabric is. indeed the easiest to manufacture and is as satis'- h factory in its performance as any. Still, fabrics with irregular meshes of various kinds other j j Naturally, two or three different kinds of meshes may be combined into one pattern with the aforesaid properties.

Base fabrics of the aforesaid kind offer the advantage that the elastic filaments may be inserted in a pattern of parallel lines along any given direction considering the fact that the pattern of the inextensible base is one of an everywhere varying direction. Thus, the complete fabric comprising both, elastic and inextensible filaments may be produced on conventional textile machinery, e. g., by inserting such pattern of parallel elastic filaments in the warp.

Such fabrics have two uses, to wit, for form giving and weight supporting. The first class of uses includes the use for form giving garments of which the purpose is to lend to a given plastic but subtantially incompressible body a shape, within predetermined boundaries, with approximately the minimum surface. One example of such garment is shown in Figs. 4, 5 and 6 which show a formgiving hexagonal fabric with elastic filaments 10 attached to the base or interwoven with it. The elastic filaments may be directed in many ways, provided they do not intersect mutually, except, perphaps, in few points only. In the figures, the design shows the strands running at substantially right angles to the body muscles in the muscular surface layer nearest the skin.

Another application for formgiving purposes of a fabric comprising the aforesaid base and a system of parallel expansible filaments is its use in brassieres. Fig. 7 shows a fabric as stretched over a cone, which is thought typically to represent a breast. Before stretching over the cone, a circle is marked on the fiat laying fabric of a somewhat larger diameter than that of the base of the cone. This circular making is made to coincide with the circumference of the cone (which is feasible by virtue of a corresponding distortion of the mesh pattern) while the fabric is drawn over the cone. The distortion of the fabric which, as an example, is represented on the figure as being of a hexagonal nature, is shown in Fig. 7. Also shown in the same figure are the lines 19 along which the elastic filaments are forced to run due to the distortion which is symbolically represented by the hexagon pattern which in the figure covers only a fraction of the area. It is to be seen that the latter lines will be of a hyperbolic or parabolic character, as the case may be according to the relation between the diameter of the aforesaid circle as marked on the .4 fabric and the diameter of the base of the cone.

Instead of marking a circle, an elliptic or oval line may be marked and made to coincide with the base of the cone in the aforesaid manner. If

, so the breast may be made to assume a more or less elongated shape in the perpendicular direction, when compared with the shape which it would assume in case a circle were taken to be the coincidental line.

The second class of uses is for the purpose of resilient weight supporting structures, like mattresses, chairs, etc., insuring resiliency at all points and in all directions. represent a mattress, an example of a use in this class. In my application Serial No. 65,484, filed December 15, 1948, I have shown drawings of both a mattress and a chair illustrating such additional uses. The fabric II is shown as an example attached to the frame [2 by a dovetail wedge 13 which fits within the dovetail opening I4.

- Twine l5, I6 is attached to the fabric H and is anchored to the frame l2 together with the elastic strands I! by the wedges l3 as shown in Fig. 3 and in the enlarged detail Fig. 3a. In the modification, Fig. 3b, the fabric l l is attached by the twine l5, IE to the frame 12 by staples l8, and the elastic strands H are attached by the dove tail wedges 13'.

It is evident that various changes and modifications may be made in the details of construction and arrangement of parts in accordance with the fundamental ideas of the invention.

I claim:

1. An integrated fabric lying flat in a plane and consisting of a retiform non-slipping base pattern made up of substantially inextensiblefilaments and formed of adjacent polygons and in which no two sides of adjacent polygons as seen from any one apex preserve the same direction; and a pattern of mutually non-intersecting elastically extensible filaments crossing the base pattern of said inextensible filaments.

2. A fabric according to claim 1, wherein the inextensible filaments base pattern polygons are formed of more than four sides.

3. A fabric according to claim 2, wherein the inextensible filaments base pattern comprises meshes of regular hexagons.

4. A fabric according to claim 1, wherein the inextensible filaments base pattern comprises meshes of single quadrangles having all of their sides diverging with respect to one another.

5. A fabric according to claim 4, wherein the meshes are kite-shaped.

6. A fabric according to claim 1, wherein the elastic filaments are attached to the base pattern.

7. A fabric according to claim 1, wherein the elastic filaments are interwoven with the base Figs. 3, 3a and 3b 

